Connecticut western news., 1887-02-09
A VALENTINE.

Fairfaxa Indeed I can't go. Pm in hurry to get my quilt together" de- clared Patty Ann Bunting, as she put the finishing touch to the block of pink-and- blue nine patch she was piec,ng.
 "And rve got the kitchen and back porch to SCOUT, and some ironing to do before Sunday" cried Alkaline. ''So it's out of the question for me to go."
 ''Well, I shan't go either," asserted Penelope, the youngest Miss Bunting, tossing back her tar-black braids and frowning ominous!y. 'If Cecil Fairfax chooses to go accounting that hateful, stuck-up Priscilla Pinkham, he can get somebody besides me to stay with his mother, can tell him."
 ''But papa thinks so much of old Mrs. Fairfax," demurred Patty Anu, ''he won't hear to none of us going.'
 ''There comes Whey Farron in the gate now," cried Alkaline. "Let's get her to go, and not tell her Cecirs gone away. It'll be a good joke"
 "Yes," agreed Penelope. '1tll serve her just right. She was setting her cap for Cecil all summer, till that Plnkham girl come and caught him." 'Pooh! He don't care a snap for Whey, anyway" said Patty Ann, get ting red in the face. ''But she can't re- fuse to go, and that'll save us the trou- | ble."
 Whey Farron was cousin of the Bunt- | ing girls. She lived with her brother and his wife in little log cabin, on a ten acre farm adjoining that of her Un- cle Bunting.
 Tom Farron and his wife were poor as I church mice themselves, but they gave | their sister home, and she helped to eke out the slender income by knitting socks for the village store at forty cents a pair, and by 'taking in" sewing when ever she could get it.
 '1 came over to borrow some Drowned coffee," said Whey, coming in fresh and rosy from the frosty winter air.
 "Yes, to be sure," returned Alkaline, more cheerful than was her wont. "And, Whey, would you mind going over to old Mrs. Fairfax's to-daya She wanted some one of us to come, but we are all SO busy"
 And with a little deepening of the pink in her cheeks, Whey gave the re. quired assent, and tripped away with her bowl of coffee, while the three cousins burst into hearty laugh at the success of their plan.
 "She thinks Cecil will be there," said Penelope, maliciously. 'sWon't she b' [ nicely fooled, thought"
 "Come in, my dear. I am SO glad tt see youp' said old Mrs. Fairfax, as Yin ey appeared, with rosy cheeks and fringe of curling, light brown hair peep ing from under her scarlet hood. "You'l stay all night, won't you, Vineyq' sait the old lady, placing chair for the wis itor close to the sparkling hardwood fir that was glowing on the broad hearth.
 '1 didn't expect to stay so long," sai' Whey, the dimples dancing in her brish cheeks; "but can, if you want me-"
 And she thought of the pleasant time she would have, chatting with Cecil 8 supper, and afterward, with the fireligh flashing brightly on the hearth, an lighting up the pleasant, cosey sitting
 oom, with it's bright rag carpet, it spider-legged chairs and claw-foote mahogany table.
 'Tll be glad to have you stay," sai Mrs. Fairfax, stirring up the fire with long hickory poker, "fur Cecil's gone the city, an pIl be alone all night"
 vmey's heart, which had been as Hgl